Graduate students at the University of Utah say rising housing costs in Salt Lake City are making it increasingly difficult to secure affordable living arrangements.

A study recently put out by LendingTree described Salt Lake City as “among the top five U.S. metros with the worst housing crisis outlook.” According to data from Zillow, the average price to rent in SLC is almost $1600 per month. That comes out to $19,200 per year on rent alone.

Some graduate students say they often don’t have time to work outside of their studies. Kosta Kambouris, a third-year student pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science, moved back in with family five months ago due to unaffordable rent.

“Part of the reason I moved back home is because … there’s no way I would be able to do the dissertation and the part-time job,” he said. “So I had to quit that just to have the time. I couldn’t afford to keep renting without the part-time job.” Kambouris rented an apartment in the Avenues where he paid about $1,000 a month — roughly 60% of his income.

Stipends

Graduate students at the U who work as a Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant have their tuition waived. In addition to a stipend that varies from student to student, the Graduate School sets a minimum stipend of $20,000 for nine months of study. According to Darryl Butt, the Dean of the Graduate School, roughly a third of students benefit from these stipends.“We don’t set the stipend for colleges,” Butt said. “What we do, though, is we set a minimum. And that minimum is a minimum for eligibility for tuition waivers. So, that’s our stick, effectively, to maintain at least a minimum level of support for graduate students.”

This stipend is in addition to aid from the various departments on campus. “We do encourage our programs across campus to support students at a higher rate than our minimum,” Matthew Plooster, the Assistant Dean in the Graduate School who oversees graduate fellowships, awards and benefits, said. “We set the base, not the actual. On top of that, we encourage every program to be competitive within their discipline across the country.”

Not every department has the same access to funding, which causes some struggle to give more than the minimum. Jay Jordan, the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, says he faces this issue as the leader of a program established on campus in 2021.

The average stipend also changes from year to year, based on available funding. “We think the average this year will be around a little bit above $26,000 for nine months and $35,000 for 12 months,” Butt said.

These stipends come in addition to other benefits, including free healthcare at the university’s hospital. “The university will cover 100% and that’s $2,500 a year,” Plooster said. Plooster explained that the university used to have an 80/20 model, where they would reimburse 80% of the cost. However, he says the problem with that was that students had to pay hundreds of dollars for pharmaceutical drugs, or if they had to go to the hospital.

“That also leaves the assumption that students have that kind of funding to pay $10,000 out of pocket. Or they have a credit line and they can get their reimbursement in time before interest is accrued,” he said. “So we took a couple years, but we were able to get our insurance to include a pharmacy benefit … for the students who need life-saving drugs to cover chronic illnesses, for example, which is a concern we’ve heard a lot about over the years. That is something that has been very life-changing for a lot of students … we can’t control stipend costs. But this is something that can help reduce their out-of-pocket costs.”

Poverty

Kambouris said graduate students say their stipends don’t cover the rising cost of living. “Most grad students live below the poverty line,” he said. “There’s a grad student that I know that was in between housing. He had roommates and was able to afford it. Then some graduated and left, and then he was stuck in a weird limbo. He wasn’t homeless, but there were a few months where he had to pay extra rent and go into more debt to pay extra rent. There’s a weird limbo because most grad students are not making a livable wage.”

Some of this stems from the amount of time it takes to complete a graduate program.“Typically, the work is about 20 hours a week from the TA or RA-ship, so it’s a part-time job,” Kambouris said. “But part of being a graduate student is doing your own original research, which is usually unpaid. So, 50 hours a week is pretty typical for a graduate student.”

In some programs, graduate students teach courses, as is the case with many first-year writing classes. “Graduate students in [Writing and Rhetoric] and a couple of other departments as well [those] who teach for us are teaching first-year writing courses that the university considers essential,” Jordan said. “Our graduate students come in on day one, teaching those courses. They’re not TAs. They’re called TAs, but they’re not; they are actually teaching those courses themselves. They get a lot of supervision. They get a lot of support for that, but they are the instructors on record. Their names show up on the schedule.”

With demanding academic workloads, many graduate students report turning to loans or credit to manage living costs. “I think debt is a big thing with graduate students,” Kambouris said. “Whether that’s student loan debt or credit card debt. Maybe rent is covered by a stipend, but just general living expenses aren’t.”

International students

International students often have other challenges that can make graduate school more expensive. Carolina Cabezasvidal, a Chilean student pursuing her Ph.D. in political science, says that due to visa restrictions, she can’t legally work more than 20 hours a week. “As all the other international students, our visa has a weekly working hours limit which we cannot go over,” she said. “That means I would get paid 15 dollars an hour, and I could only work four hours a day, five days a week.”

All foreign students at an American university must have an F visa, which permits them to study and obtain a degree. These visas only permit studying, causing international students to not be able to obtain outside jobs.

In addition, international students have fees they must pay as part of going to university abroad. “As international students, we are required to pay international fees and health care insurance, which can go from $500 to $2,000 a month, depending on what the university is asking you to pay,” Cabezasvidal said. “I remember at Cal State I had to pay $700 for health insurance each semester.”

For some international students, it’s harder to secure housing because many landlords don’t accept international documents as proof of income. The U does offer on-campus housing. At an estimated cost of $17,442 for food and a room for nine months, Cabezasvidal says it’s more expensive than off-campus living. “It’s not cheaper, it’s just a little bit easier to apply and to get housing from the U. The prices are stupidly expensive, even for university housing,” she said.

Weighing the tradeoffs

Cabezasvidal still believes she and other grad students are incredibly lucky. “Graduate school is a privilege that many don’t have, and sometimes we have to remember that,” she said. “Not many can say ‘I get paid to research about xxxxx topic.’”

Butt cautions students to really look into their finances before committing to graduate school. “When you make that choice [to go to grad school], it’s very important that you plan it out,” he said. “It’s our responsibility to practice … truth in advertising. Even if you’re paid a high stipend, and your tuition is waived, and you get good housing. It’s still expensive to go to grad school because you’re giving up years of your life to invest in yourself.”

Regardless of the cost, some students still feel like graduate school is worth it. “I think grad students are very fortunate,” Kambouris said. “We get to go to school for free, and we get to pursue something we’re really passionate about. Typically on the dime of the department.”